Mr. Speaker, I believe the greatest moral issue we face as a Nation
is the killing of 4,000 unborn children every single day through
abortion. Mr. Speaker, God cannot continue to bless America while we are
killing these children. They're children. They're babies. They're human
beings.

When I came to Congress in 2007, the very first bill I introduced was
my Sanctity of Human Life Act. I am a medical doctor. I know without any
question that life begins when the spermatozoa, the sperm cell, enters
the cell wall of the oocyte, the egg, and produces a one-celled human
being called a zygote. That zygote is totally different from its mom. It
has every function, every bit of genetic makeup to be a grown human
being if we just nurture it and allow it to grow and allow it to live.

I have been involved with a crisis pregnancy center in Athens,
Georgia. Not long ago, we had a young lady who was considering abortion.
She came there, and she had an ultrasound. She was about 10 or 12 weeks
along. I don't recall exactly, but it was early on in her pregnancy. She
had just found out a few weeks before that she had missed her period, so
she came for a pregnancy test.

When she saw that ultrasound, her exclamation was, ``That's a baby.''

That's what we see over and over again with these expectant moms when
they see those ultrasounds. That's the reason she understood it was a
baby. It is a baby. It is a human being. There is no greater freedom, no
greater liberty, than to live. There is no greater protection that we as
a government can give to protect human beings all the way from the time
of fertilization until they have natural deaths.

You see, Mr. Speaker, God creates those children. We do not have the
moral authority to take their lives. We've got to protect their lives.
In a free society, where liberty is held in the highest esteem by every
individual in this country--whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or
conservative--the right to life is a fundamental form of liberty. We
have to protect life. That is the reason the first bill I introduce in
every single Congress will continue to be my Sanctity of Human Life Act.

My friend and fellow Member from California, Duncan Hunter, Junior,
has reintroduced his dad's bill, Duncan Hunter, Senior. Their bill is
called Life at Conception Act. I am a cosponsor of their bill, as Duncan
Hunter, I, and now Duncan Hunter, II, are of my bill. We have to stop
this travesty, this awful, horrendous attack, moral attack, upon our
basic rights as human beings--and that is the right to life.

Mr. Speaker, if we cannot protect life, then we cannot protect any
liberty. We cannot protect any freedom that our Founding Fathers created
the Constitution to protect--those God-given rights.

We have had many of our colleagues tonight speak from the preamble
that Thomas Jefferson penned in 1776, the preamble of the Declaration of
Independence. Thomas Jefferson is considered one of the least religious
of our Founding Fathers, but he believed in life. That's the reason he
penned it there. He believed in God. We're not taught that in school
anymore, but that's factual.

You see, even if you don't believe in God, from a scientific
perspective, there is only one place in a person's life where you can
draw the line between no life being there and life and human being and
personhood being established, and that's at the time of fertilization.

Roe vs. Wade, in the decision, was predicated on there being no
legislative definition of the beginning of life. That's the reason it is
absolutely critical that we define life as beginning at
fertilization--to protect those one-celled human beings.

It is absolutely critical that every person in this country who loves
liberty and who wants to protect life contacts their Congressmen,
contacts their Senators and says, We have to protect life. We have to
protect all our God-given freedoms, particularly life. ``Contact your
Senators,'' is what I tell my constituents.

What I tell people all over this country is ``Contact your Senator.
Contact your Congressman.'' Tell him to support the Sanctity of Human
Life Act, my bill, or Duncan Hunter's bill, the Life at Conception Act.
Join in this fight because there is no greater moral issue that this
country faces. If we want God's blessings upon America, we have to
protect these most vulnerable of human beings--the unborn children.

In Proverbs, God says, Speak up for the speechless in the cause of
those appointed to die. That's what we are here tonight to do is to
speak up for those speechless, those appointed to die by abortion.

We have got to end abortion. We don't need a constitutional
amendment. We need a legislative definition: the beginning of life to
occur at fertilization. Once we have that placed into law, we will stop
this blight upon our society, this dark era in the history of this
Nation that began in 1973 with this awful decision of the Supreme Court
called Roe vs. Wade. We have to protect life. We have to protect
liberty. We have to protect every single human being's God-given rights.

Protecting life is important--from fertilization all the way to
natural death--and I promise that I will continue with every bit of my
being, and many other of our colleagues, Republicans and Democrats
alike, will continue to fight for life.

So, Mr. Speaker, if we want God's blessings upon America to continue,
we have to end this blight upon America.

We have to define life beginning at fertilization and protect life
for these unborn children.

Thank you, Mr. Smith. And I want to personally thank you for your
tireless fight in this issue because you've been a stalwart here in this
House for many, many years, and I greatly personally appreciate the
great work you've done for years and years in protecting life. So thank
you and God bless you. And we have to get the killing of these unborn
children stopped so God can continue to bless America.